Back in 1974,while I was a licensed Southern Baptist Preacher and College Bible Major, the movie The Burning Hell was then being shown at many Bible Believing Churches throughout the Southeast. I was able to attend one such showing at a Pentecostal church in Seneca, SC.

While this video looks cheaply made by today’s high tech cinematography standareds, its affects were on par with such horror flicks of the era as The Night of the Living Dead and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

Many Christians who saw it were said to have had nightmares of Hell.

This film looks dumb today, but it’s horrors of the mid-seventies was claimed to have saved many over the reality of an eternal torment in Satan’s Hell.

I want to say something that, I suppose, is only relevant to this topic tangentially.

I do not believe in god in any way that would satisfy a religious person. The 2% of me that entertains the idea doesn't do it within the confines of any established religion.

My beliefs are as simple as this: I doubt there is a god that cares about the affairs of people enough to construct a heaven and hell. But if there is, it should be good enough to have been a good a decent person.

Of course that begs the question "what makes a good and decent person?" But I think that we all have an idea of what we mean when we use the term, and so don't feel the need to define it.

God is in Heaven with his Kingdom and Satan is in Hell with his Kingdom and they meet on earth to do battle over the souls of humans.

The affect of Greek mythology on both Jesus and Satan is impressive.

Since Hades (Hell) in Homer is both a god and a region, the Christian Tradition has taken over this classical mythology and created a Hell (as seen in this film) used to scared people into Heaven or, Heaven is just one of many Christian orthodox sectarian dogmas.

Thus, Christianity is entrenched with Gnosticism. Only when one has the correct knowledge is one truly “Saved” and being truly saved is only as one stays in one’s sectarian faith.

This mythology is fully played out in the Book of Revelation when the Kingdom of God battles the Kingdom of Satan, but only after Satan runs amuck in the Tribulation.

In today’s post modern world, apart from the socialization of friendships at one’s church, the ancient Greek and Near Eastern myths which formed the bases for the Christian righteousness vs. evil battles over the souls of men is to us as ancient and past as this movie is.

All the Christian apologetic contextualization can’t resurrect the Satan and Hell that both Luther and Calvin believed so strongly in.

DANICA: you ask "what makes a good person?" this question should answer itself, our actions make us good or bad, not legal restrictions. morals are the answer.Morals are the natural innate knowledge of what we know to be right or wrong. We know automatically when something is wrong, it is universal regarding humanities thoughts and feelings, people on the other side of the planet know innatly what is wrong or right just as we do.If moral considerations were included in our laws it would help but they arent, but sadly the protection of property and finance of the wealthly make up the majority of our 'laws', that is morally wrong. but legally right (the bankers robbery happening now being a good example)we all agree robbery is wrong yet it is allowed to continue on its industrial scale.We dont need to be told what makes a good person any more than a baby needs to be taught that it needs to suckle on its mother for food.Some knowledge we are born with. Morality is one of those things we are born with.Its humanities choosing not to listen to that inner voice or its accompanied emotions that is the problem.